Bear Digest

Where Justin Fields Needs to Catch Up

Andy Dalton owns some real edges over Justin Fields and it's not just Matt Nagy being stubborn when they start the "Red Rifle" in the opener against the Rams.
Gene Chamberlain|
Where Justin Fields Needs to Catch Up
Where Justin Fields Needs to Catch Up

Matt Nagy's explanation for playing Andy Dalton in the opener instead of Justin Fields came out gradually over the course of offseason work.

It took until minicamp when he made it known in no uncertain terms.

However, the reasons for this decision came out in increments before and after his statement.

Taken at face value, these comments construct a steep hill for Fields to climb in only a few short weeks if he is to get into position where he could eventually replace Dalton this season.

When games actually begin, a great deal changes. What looks like a huge edge due to experience and system knowledge can degenerate into struggles and mistakes when a quarterback lines up across from a stronger NFL defense. 

The Bears will face one of those in the season opener.

At that point, natural ability can count for more than it does while teams are still forming in training camp and earlier. It's then when the playing field levels a bit for Fields.

Here are ways Fields will find himself behind Dalton when training camp begins.

1. Knowing What Can Work

Dalton knows the offense well enough that he tells Nagy what he thinks of various concepts and plays within the offense. Fields can't begin to approach this because it's his first time looking at an NFL playbook and NFL defenses. Fields will have to gain complete knowledge of the playbook before he can compete with this Dalton edge.

"We knew going into this that Andy is very open," Nagy said. "He's also opinionated in a good way because he's had a bunch of experience. He's done a lot of this, but then he'll give his opinions on how he sees things as well.

"Justin's completely new. It's this whole part. For him, it's a lot more listening."

When Fields can give better thoughts as feedback, he'll be making better progress toward starting.

2. Andy Dalton Altering Plays

Dalton's experience edge allowed for a rapid education in the offense.

"Fortunately, having been around I think this is my seventh coordinator of my 11 years, I know how to adjust to a new offense," Dalton said.

Nagy detailed how in one practice during two-minute drills, Dalton saw something, changed a play at the line of scrimmage, and produced a first down.

"And I think that's where, you see something on defense, you get out of a play you don't really like and you get into a play that you like and then you convert it," Nagy said. "There's a lot of ownership there. And it's easy for him. That's natural. That's not something that we sit there and applaud him 100 times a day because he did it. That's supposed to happen. So the offense, he has completely. He really has it down.

"So I think now it’s just trying to come to us and tell us what he likes and doesn’t like and now we fit all of that together."

The problem with this advantage for Dalton is there is more than one way to alter the play. Fields can do it with his feet, not simply by changing it at the line of scrimmage.

3. Seeing It

Nagy lauded Dalton's ability to make anticipatory throws in the offense and it's something Fields can't possibly do until he has worked the attack more under game conditions in preseason or even in scrimmage at camp. When Dalton is throwing it to spots in anticipation of receivers getting open, he is at his best and he only can do this because he understands how the offense and defense work.

"So he's throwing them open, whereas some other guys might not have that right away until they get more reps," Nagy said. "I think just experience, starter experience that Andy has is a big part of this and what he's doing."

4. Relaying the Plays

The Bears made a big deal of how they're getting Fields to do audio recordings of play calls and send them back to quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo during the time away from Halas Hall. It goes beyond just calling out the plays in the huddle. He must be communicating then and when he also at the line of scrimmage.

"And so for Justin, he's just got to see like when Andy, Andy's cadence, what he's doing with his voice inflection, the way he says 'white 80' vs. the way Justin says it at the line of scrimmage, like little things," Nagy said.

5. Leadership

Fields could make strides here rapidly once camp begins. Then he can show how he handles teammates on the field or sidelines as a quarterback needs to do.

"Teammates all react in different ways," Nagy said. "How do you grab a guy? And so there's a lot of intangibles that a quarterback has.

"Justin's going to be Justin, no doubt about it. And Andy's going to be Andy. But they're going to learn from each other and I think right now just the little things that I'm seeing in the meeting room and out here at practice, it really does remind me of prior (quarterback training) experiences that I've been a part of."

6. Handling Adversity

Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor already knows how Dalton handles situations when mistakes are made and things are deteriorating. For Fields, it's not easy proving he has this trait because most of his time at Ohio State involved great periods of success. This is something more apparent in games than practice, but Nagy saw some instances like this in offseason work and Fields handled those mistakes well. One was the interception Fields threw in the red zone to Christian Jones during non-contact scrimmaging. Fields' behavior when things are going well in practice can be part of this.

Basically, they need to see Fields' ability to move on to the next play.

"When something good happens, he reacts the same," Nagy said. "And that part, that's a good trait to have, because you can never get too high, you can never get too low. That's why he’s had the success he’s had.

"You talk about the games that he played last year—the struggles he had against Northwestern, Indiana. But yet he also comes back in a lot of those plays and steps up and makes plays or the next game has a great game."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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